During certain surgical procedures it is necessary to cut organ tissue and apply one or more rows of surgical staples along the tissue cut to close the open blood vessels. Surgeons have used linear cutter stapling devices to suture body organs and tissues such as lung, esophagus, stomach, duodenum and other body organs in the intestinal tract. Such devices apply a plurality of laterally spaced rows of staples on opposite sides of a tissue cut.
Example of such surgical staplers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,633,861 and 4,892,244, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by this reference. The surgical stapler includes a pair of cooperating elongate jaw members. One of the jaw members includes a staple cartridge with at least two laterally spaced rows of staples and the other jaw member includes an anvil with staple closing depressions in alignment with the rows of staples in the cartridge. A pusher block is directed longitudinally along the jaws to sequentially eject staples from the cartridges in a manner that closes the staples against the anvil to form laterally spaced lines of staples through tissue that is gripped between the jaws. A knife is associated with the pusher block so as to move forward along the jaws to cut the tissue along the line between the previously formed staple rows.
It is necessary to close all of the open blood vessels along the cut line between the staple rows formed by a linear cutter or similar type surgical device. Prior efforts have been directed to modifying the staple design and staple pattern to increase the level of hemostasis along the cut line. The present invention is specifically directed to a unique method and apparatus for achieving a higher level of hemostasis than has heretofore been possible with existing stapling techniques and stapling devices.